Midnight in the Meadow
by idealskeptic
Summary: Set during the 74th Hunger Games, this is what Mrs. Everdeen saw, thought, and felt as her daughter fought to survive the seemingly unsurvivable. The person she turns to for support is the man who loved her as a boy, Mr. Mellark.
1. Reaping Day

**Disclaimer:** All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

**Author's Note: **Thank first to _Mirajane Scarlet _for beta'ing this for me.

This story will be twenty very short chapters long. They are all written and, if the stars align properly, will be updated every day. That's the goal anyway.

This is all through the eyes of Katniss' mother. The other main player is Peeta's father. Since neither of them were given first names by Suzanne Collins, and I kind of like it that way, no names are used in this story. I hope that's not confusing.

Anyway, enough chatter. Please read…

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**MIDNIGHT IN THE MEADOW**

**Reaping Day**

Somewhere, deep in the back of my uncomprehending mind, I realize that she's standing there alone with two of her sons. Where is he? Surely the whole family had to see Peeta at the same time, didn't they?

I crouch down and wrap my arms around Prim, reminding myself to focus on her and her alone. She's so very proud of Katniss, but she's so very scared for her. I have to be strong, for both of them, and I will. I will be what they need me to be now.

I should have done it sooner, but I will do it now.

When he comes out of the room where I left Katniss, I can hardly believe my eyes. Why would he see her? Surely everything she is, everything she inherited from her father must make him angry.

He stands with his wife and sons. I stand with Prim.

When the visits are over, when it's time for our children to go to the Capitol, the Peacekeepers usher us out of the Justice Building.

Prim is walking between me and Gale, but I feel a hand on my shoulder as I start down the steps.

Utter sadness clouds his blue eyes.

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Now that you've read it, won't you please review?


	2. The Night Before

**Author's Note: **Thank first to _Mirajane Scarlet _for beta'ing this for me.

This story will be twenty very short chapters long. They are all written and, if the stars align properly, will be updated every day. That's the goal anyway.

I've got good feedback so far so please keep reading…

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**The Night Before**

Gale could be a little less obvious.

I know he's trying to look out for me, and more for Prim, in case I lose it while Katniss is in the Hunger Games, but I'm not going to and he's hovering.

I won't tell him that, though, because he really does mean well.

So, while he sleeps in Katniss' bed and Prim sleeps in mine, I slip out of the house and make my way through the dark night to the Meadow.

It's strange, really, because I never came to the Meadow while I was married and never once as a widow but now, on the night before my oldest daughter enters the arena where she very well may die, I find myself wanting to be there more than anything.

As I sit with my back against a tree, a cloud slides across the dark sky, letting the moon cast an eerie glow all around me. That's when I see him.

I spent a lot of time here before I married, and it was always with him.

I'm not surprised that he's found his way back here tonight. After all, tomorrow his youngest son enters the arena where he very well may die.


	3. Day One

**Author's Note: **Thank first to _Mirajane Scarlet _for beta'ing this for me.

This story will be twenty very short chapters long. They are all written and, if the stars align properly, will be updated every day. That's the goal anyway.

I've got good feedback so far so please keep reading…

* * *

**Day One**

Katniss survived the day.

All but giddy with relief when she tucks herself into a tree for the night and live coverage of the Games ends, I can hardly wait until Prim falls asleep to flee the house. I don't worry about leaving her because she'll sleep soundly and, not wanting things to be too obvious, Gale's arranged for Rory to spend the night.

He's already at the Meadow when I arrive.

He does something he hasn't done in twenty years. He hugs me.

"They're still alive," he murmurs. "They're still alive."

Those six words make my heart soar briefly before my mind remembers that there is a still a very, very long way to go. Even more terrifying is the fact that Katniss and Peeta can't both come home. One of us will lose a child.

"For now," I whisper, still wrapped in his arms.

I feel cold when he lets go of me.

"Do you need anything?" he asks. "Does the little girl have enough to eat?"

I'm surprised that he asks, but I think I cover it well. "We're alright. We don't have much appetite, but you pay her so much for her cheese already."

"If you need anything, ask."


	4. Day Two

**Author's Note: **Thank first to _Mirajane Scarlet _for beta'ing this for me.

This story will be twenty very short chapters long. They are all written and, if the stars align properly, will be updated every day. That's the goal anyway.

Tell me if you like it, won't you please?

* * *

**Day Two**

Prim and I are in the square, selling what goat cheese the baker's wife wouldn't buy when the screens flicker to life. Something important is happening in the Games.

I try to ignore the fact that everyone is staring at me. I focus instead on holding Prim's hand tightly and watching the closest screen.

Katniss is up a tree, and I'm suddenly ridiculously grateful the arena has trees because she knows how to use them to her advantage.

I used to be so mad when her father took her into the woods, but I'm silently apologizing to him now. If anything, what he taught her will be what gets her to the end, if she makes it.

My attention focuses on the screen again as I realize the Careers are near her tree. But they're focused on a poor, stupid girl who started a fire to keep warm.

They kill her, of course.

I don't understand why Peeta joined them.

The screens go black and I tug on Prim's hand. "Let's go home," I murmur.

He stops us before we leave, taking the last of the cheese from Prim and slipping coins into her hand. "Take care, little one," he says softly.


	5. Day Three

**Author's Note: **Thank first to _Mirajane Scarlet _for beta'ing this for me.

This story will be twenty very short chapters long. They are all written and, if the stars align properly, will be updated every day. That's the goal anyway.

I should've mentioned before that I'm following the timeline provided for the 74th Hunger Games on the _Hunger Games Wikia_ site. In case you were wondering…

Tell me if you like it, won't you please?

* * *

**Day Three**

Prim cries herself to sleep after the long day of seeing Katniss burned by fire and chased up a tree by the Careers. I don't get a chance to leave the house until just a few hours before dawn. Gale's there again, so I go without much worry of her waking up scared and alone.

He's in Meadow, just as I expected he would be.

"Peeta's not trying to kill her," he says when he sees me. "You have to believe me, he's not."

"He joined the Careers," I point out, only stating facts.

"You heard his interview," he argues. "He wasn't lying. He loves her."

"Enough to die for her?" I demand.

He stares at me for a long minute and then sighs heavily. "Yes. Yes, he does love her enough to die for her. He didn't tell me so, but I believe it."

I regret my anger and frustration in an instant. So I say the only thing I can. "I'm so sorry."

He knows I'm not apologizing for snapping at him, he knows I'm apologizing that his son might die so my daughter can live.

And still he shakes his head. "I'm not. He's doing what he wants to."


	6. Day Four

**Author's Note: **Thank first to _Mirajane Scarlet _for beta'ing this for me.

This story will be twenty very short chapters long. They are all written and, if the stars align properly, will be updated every day. That's the goal anyway.

Tell me if you like it, won't you please?

* * *

**Day Four**

I am terrified.

Katniss has no idea where she is or what she's doing, not after being stung so many times by the tracker jackers she let fall on Peeta and the Careers.

She only seems to be having vivid hallucinations now, but that doesn't mean she'll survive.

She wandered around so long, talking to herself about trying to escape invisible giant ants, exploding butterflies, and a sparkling Peeta who ordered her to run away.

He wasn't there, but she saw him.

For that, I will be eternally grateful.

I'm still terrified.

On what most people would probably call the bright side, two tributes die from the tracker jacker attack. I know Katniss won't like the deaths of those girls on her conscience, but they have to die for her to live.

She has to live.

I can't help but be frustrated at myself for even having children. I'd never give them up, not for anything, but I knew what the Hunger Games meant before I ever even knew what love was.

Was it selfish of me to want children? Should I have defied the Capitol and never given them fodder for their Games?

I wish I was as strong as Katniss.


	7. Day Five

**Author's Note: **Thank first to _Mirajane Scarlet _for beta'ing this for me.

This story will be twenty very short chapters long. They are all written and, if the stars align properly, will be updated every day. That's the goal anyway.

Tell me if you like it, won't you please?

* * *

**Day Five**

I run to the Meadow as soon as Prim falls asleep. I think she knows I leave at night sometimes, but she never asks me to stay or asks me where I go. She knows that I need to go and that I need to go alone.

Tonight, I don't run in fear of Katniss' life. Instead, I run because I know he needs me.

Katniss is safe for the night in an alliance with Rue, the girl anyone can see reminds her of Prim. They're in a tree and no one is paying attention to them. Rue's even healed Katniss' stings better than I could have and she healed the girl's burns.

It's Peeta that's in trouble.

My heart stopped when Cato ran his sword through Peeta's leg and now he's hidden himself by the river to try and stay safe. And alive.

He's crying when I get there, scared out of his mind for his son.

I wrap my arms around his shoulders and hold him tightly, just as I know he would do if things had happened differently.

We don't say anything that night, not a word.

We just sit and try to be strong for each other.

It isn't easy.


	8. Day Six

**Author's Note: **Thank first to _Mirajane Scarlet _for beta'ing this for me.

This story will be twenty very short chapters long. They are all written and, if the stars align properly, will be updated every day. That's the goal anyway.

Tell me if you like it, won't you please?

* * *

**Day Six**

The Hawthornes have come to watch the Games with us. I'm grateful for all of their support, but I still feel like I'm suffocating as I watch my daughter, my baby girl, plan out a way to destroy the immense stockpile of food and weapons that the Careers have gathered.

Posy is coloring on paper on the floor with colored pencils Prim gave her. Vick is trying not to watch the screen as Katniss creeps close to the Cornucopia and Rue lights the signal fires. Rory and Prim are sitting together on the floor and he's comforting her. Gale can't take his eyes off the screen, as if he can will Katniss to be alright simply by watching. And Hazelle is knitting furiously, keeping her hands as busy as her mind.

The redhead from District 5 hops through to steal something, making it clear that the field as been mined again. The girl has been watching the Careers, Katniss hasn't. She can't find her way through and, looking at her, I know she's starting to panic.

I give her the only advice I can think of – shoot the apples.

For the first time in a long time, she listens to her mother.


	9. Day Seven

**Author's Note: **Thank first to _Mirajane Scarlet _for beta'ing this for me.

This story will be twenty very short chapters long. They are all written and, if the stars align properly, will be updated every day. That's the goal anyway.

Tell me if you like it, won't you please?

* * *

**Day Seven**

Prim and I are in the town square when Rue is killed.

For a fleeting moment, I'm so thrilled that Katniss wasn't killed that I forget to mourn the child who just died. Katniss reminds me, though, when she makes the hovercrafts wait while she gathers flowers and covers the child with them.

That's my daughter and, although I know she'll pay for it somehow, I've never been more proud of her.

A little while later someone sends Katniss a loaf of bread and it confuses me because I don't recognize the type of bread.

"District 11," a voice I'd know anywhere says quietly from behind my shoulder. "The bread is from District 11, the girl's district."

Prim's distracted selling her goat's milk to Mayor Undersee, so I speak softly without turning around. "How is he?" I ask, because I honestly haven't paid that much attention. "How's Peeta?"

"Still alive by the river," he replies with a sadness in his voice. "I think. It's hard to tell with how he's camouflaged himself. I don't know for sure where he is and I only know he hasn't died because they haven't said so."

"He's strong," I tell him hollowly. "He will be alright."


	10. Day Eight

**Author's Note: **Thank first to _Mirajane Scarlet _for beta'ing this for me.

This story will be twenty very short chapters long. They are all written and, if the stars align properly, will be updated every day. That's the goal anyway.

Tell me if you like it, won't you please?

* * *

**Day Eight**

We meet in the Meadow again as the moon rises high in the sky.

Nothing has happened in the last day. No tributes died and neither Katniss nor Peeta came any closer to emerging from the arena.

"I hate this," I say, as much to myself as to him. "I hate wishing people dead so that she can be the one who lives. Especially Peeta."

"I hate it too," he tells me. "For all the same reasons. I don't want any of them to not go home, especially Peeta and Katniss."

We sit quietly for a few minutes before he speaks again. "I won't stop loving you if she comes home and he doesn't. You know that, right?"

I nod slowly. "I know. I won't stop loving you if he comes home. I might not be able to look at him, but it won't change how I feel about you."

"He loves her, he really does," he says quietly. "I'm glad you ran away with a coal miner, it gave us the chance to have Katniss and Peeta. I'm grateful for that."

"I am too," I say, sighing wearily.

He offers me food for Prim and we leave after a long hug.


	11. Day Nine

**Author's Note: **Thank first to _Mirajane Scarlet _for beta'ing this for me.

This story will be twenty very short chapters long. They are all written and, if the stars align properly, will be updated every day. That's the goal anyway.

Tell me if you like it, won't you please?

* * *

**Day Nine**

She found him!

Peeta's still alive and Katniss found him.

More than that, there can be two winners if they're from the same district.

They can win.

If he survives his festering leg injury.

As I watch her work on him; washing his clothes and his skin, treating the smaller injuries first before tackling the bigger ones, and just telling him the words he needs to hear, I've never been more proud of my daughter.

For all the times she's run away from sick and wounded people, for all the times she's made it clear she saw her hunting and gathering as more important than what I do … she's really paid attention and, if anyone in that arena can save Peeta it is Katniss.

If I spoke to anyone about it, they'd wonder why I cared so much about Peeta living when Katniss is there.

I know she'll be devastated if he dies, but it's more than that.

From the day he gave her bread, and I remember that day, he's had a hold on her that she tries very hard to deny, but she can't.

She loves him.

She may not ever admit it to herself, but she loves him.


	12. Day Ten

**Author's Note: **Thank first to _Mirajane Scarlet _for beta'ing this for me.

This story will be twenty very short chapters long. They are all written and, if the stars align properly, will be updated every day. That's the goal anyway.

Tell me if you like it, won't you please?

* * *

**Day Ten**

I have to go to the Meadow. There isn't any televised coverage tonight because there are only six tributes left and they've all settled in for the night.

Katniss and Peeta are in their cave, and she's drugged him to make sure she can go to the Cornucopia for the feast. She's going to risk her life, and his, for his life, and hers.

I'm going out of my mind.

"Can he survive without the medicine that'll be at the Cornucopia?" a voice asks me from the shadows of the Meadow.

"Probably not," I admit, trying to think like a healer not like a friend or a mother. "The blood infection will spread to his heart or his brain. Quickly."

He nods slowly, his eyes glistening wetly in the moonlight. "I thought so. I just wanted to know if I should hope she stays in the cave or goes to the feast. I still don't know."

I slip my hand into his and squeeze tightly. "I just want them both to live. Somehow. Is that possible? Do you think?"

"If anyone can survive this, Katniss can," he tells me quietly.

I sigh very deeply. "She'll take Peeta with her, if she can."


	13. Day Eleven

**Author's Note: **Thank first to _Mirajane Scarlet _for beta'ing this for me.

This story will be twenty very short chapters long. They are all written and, if the stars align properly, will be updated every day. That's the goal anyway.

Tell me if you like it, won't you please?

* * *

**Day Eleven**

Prim strokes my back as I get physically sick after Thresh spares Katniss' life because she treated Rue with dignity.

For a moment, a fleeting one, my faith in humanity is restored.

And then I got sick.

I blame it on the stress of the feast at the Cornucopia.

Watching her hide, watching the District 5 girl scamper fearlessly across the open field and snag her pack, watching Katniss run and reach her pack, only to be attacked by the District 2 girl … it was too much for me.

I don't know how I didn't faint. But if they were to be my daughter's last moments of life, I would see them. That kept me together. I couldn't hold her hand, but I would watch.

And then Thresh saved her.

If Katniss or Peeta can't win, I hope Thresh can.

In a moment when he could have become exactly what the Capitol wanted, he didn't. He became a boy again, a boy with a heart and a boy to be proud of.

"Are you okay?" Prim asks me tentatively.

I sit up and wrap my arms around her. "Of course I am, little duck," I lie. "Let's go home now, okay?"


	14. Day Twelve

**Author's Note: **Thank first to _Mirajane Scarlet _for beta'ing this for me.

This story will be twenty very short chapters long. They are all written and, if the stars align properly, will be updated every day. That's the goal anyway.

Tell me if you like it, won't you please?

* * *

**Day Twelve**

Prim knows now that Peeta's father loved me and, when she asks, I tell her I loved him too.

Knowing that, she wakes up when I'm slipping out of the house and asks where I'm going. When I tell her, she only nods and lies back down. "Be safe," she murmurs, just loud enough that I'll hear her but the sleeping Gale won't.

I always am.

Tonight, he asks about Katniss first.

"She'll be alright, won't she? She lost a lot of blood."

"Peeta's taking good care of her," I tell him. "The cut on her head won't kill her."

He sits on a fallen log. I sit next to him. "Besides them, there are only three left," he says.

"Cato is deadly," I remind him. "The girl is an unknown and Thresh will only give them one reprieve. He's given it."

He clasps my hand between his rough, scarred ones. "You have to hope. Don't give up. Not on Katniss, not on yourself. Not again."

I'm ashamed he knows I gave up, but how could he not? Everyone knew. It wasn't a secret that Katniss became all things for the Everdeen family.

But his words are what I need to hear.


	15. Day Thirteen

**Author's Note: **Thank first to _Mirajane Scarlet _for beta'ing this for me.

This story will be twenty very short chapters long. They are all written and, if the stars align properly, will be updated every day. That's the goal anyway.

Tell me if you like it, won't you please?

* * *

**Day Thirteen**

The kiss Katniss and Peeta share is nothing less than a double edged sword.

He loves her and she may love him. The kiss that brings them a true feast from Haymitch makes that clear. It will get them sponsors, but the people who rule the Capitol will hate it.

This isn't supposed to be how the Games are played.

The Gamemakers would've been happier if she'd stabbed him in the back while she embraced him. They'll probably change the rules again and declare there can only be one winner.

I wonder if Katniss has thought of that. Either way, I'm happy she's kissing him. She needs someone to love, and someone to love her. She only needs to learn that she can love someone and, more importantly, that she's worthy of love.

Peeta can teach her that.

If she'll let him.

I hope she lets him.

Prim curls up next to me and Buttercup jumps into her lap. "Do you think Katniss will come home?" she asks me in a cracking voice.

"She promised you she would," I tell her, softly stroking her hair. "Has Katniss ever let you down?"

She looks up and me and smiles. "No, she never has."


	16. Day Fourteen

**Author's Note: **Thank first to _Mirajane Scarlet _for beta'ing this for me.

This story will be twenty very short chapters long. They are all written and, if the stars align properly, will be updated every day. That's the goal anyway.

Tell me if you like it, won't you please?

* * *

**Day Fourteen**

The Capitol knows the end is near so Prim doesn't have school and all of District 12 is required to be in the square as often as possible. So many people are celebrating already, it's been a very long time since our District had anyone this close to victory and now we have two; the Seam girl and the Town boy.

Prim and I are standing with the Hawthornes and Greasy Sae when Hazelle notices that the bakery is open, and apparently doing a roaring business with the people gathered around the screens.

I'm thankful I'm not the only one surprised that they're open when Peeta's in the Games.

"It'll be that witch of a wife and maybe the boys running things," Greasy Sae suggests. "She's done poisoned them to her way of thinking, all except Peeta."

He surprises me when he's there, crouching in front of Greasy Sae's granddaughter, Prim, and the smaller three Hawthornes. He's got a paper bag of cookies which they eagerly share among themselves.

I smile at him while Hazelle thanks him properly.

He stands with us while we watch Peeta pick the berries that kill the girl from District 5.

It's all so confusing and sad.


	17. Day Fifteen

**Author's Note: **Thank first to _Mirajane Scarlet _for beta'ing this for me.

This story will be twenty very short chapters long. They are all written and, if the stars align properly, will be updated every day. That's the goal anyway.

Tell me if you like it, won't you please?

* * *

**Day Fifteen**

I want so badly to run to the Meadow, to find solace in the quiet darkness there.

I don't want to watch my daughter fight muttations on the slippery surface of the Cornucopia. I don't want to watch one of them bite Peeta and Katniss nearly fall trying to save him. I don't want to watch the other boy try and strangle Peeta. I don't want to watch Katniss forced to make the shot of her life, hitting the other boy in the hand to save Peeta. I don't want to watch her be nervous about her ability to tie a tourniquet to try and stop the bleeding his leg. I don't want to watch her sit there all night and listen to the muttations torturing, because there isn't a better word, the boy from District 2.

But I have to do all of those things. I couldn't go to the Meadow if I tried.

This is required viewing.

So I let Prim bury her face in my chest and I never take my eyes off the screen.

I'll watch. I'll remember. I'll pray for the children that died and for the families. And, if Katniss dies, maybe they'll pray for her.


	18. Day Sixteen

**Author's Note: **Thank first to _Mirajane Scarlet _for beta'ing this for me.

This story will be twenty very short chapters long. They are all written and, if the stars align properly, will be updated every day. That's the goal anyway.

Tell me if you like it, won't you please?

* * *

**Day Sixteen**

No one in District 12 so much as breathes when Katniss pulls the berries out of her pocket and gives half to Peeta. No one blinks as they lift them to their mouths. Everyone gasps as Claudius Templesmith declares them both winners of the 74th Hunger Games.

And then the cheers break out.

I don't cheer.

Why would I? My little girl is never going to be the same again.

I know what the Capitol did to Haymitch Abernathy's family after he defied them during the 50th Hunger Games. I know what Katniss and Peeta did with the berries will not make President Snow happy. As everyone cheers, I wonder where my family will be the next time someone is crowned victor of the Hunger Games. Will we even be alive?

When I meet his eyes, I know he's wondering the same thing.

"Katniss is coming home!" Prim tells me over the cheers of the crowd. "Just like she promised she would."

I can see the worry in her eyes, even if she doesn't quite know why she's worried. "Of course she is, Katniss keeps her promises," I tell her again.

I never want her to have to promise anything again.


	19. The Night After

**Author's Note: **Thank first to _Mirajane Scarlet _for beta'ing this for me.

This story will be twenty very short chapters long. They are all written and, if the stars align properly, will be updated every day. That's the goal anyway.

Tell me if you like it, won't you please?

* * *

**The Night After**

"Any guess about tomorrow?" he asks me as the moonlight dances in reflection on his pale blue eyes. "Or the next day?"

"They're going to have to get married, I'm sure," I say as I let him hold my hand. "And probably have children."

"That's the best case, isn't it?" He falls silent and stares at our clasped hands. "That isn't even the right word, though. He won't be happy unless she wants to marry him. I'm sure she doesn't know."

I let the silence be my agreement with that. "Nobody wins here, even if they do win," I said after a cloud passed by the moon.

He moved in front of me, pressing his forehead against mine. "No one ever really wins in love, do they?"

I know he isn't talking about our children now, so I wrap my arms around his broad shoulders. "I'm sorry," I murmur. "But I'm not sorry. I don't know."

"I do, I know. It's okay," he tells me. "It's okay. We wouldn't have our children if you hadn't run away from me like that."

He's right, of course. And I tell him so in a way I never imagined. I kiss him.

Just one kiss.


	20. Homecoming Day

**Author's Note: **Thank first to _Mirajane Scarlet _for beta'ing this for me.

* * *

**Homecoming Day**

The train station is a madhouse as Katniss and Peeta arrive home to a hero's welcome.

The Hawthornes, now cousins to the Everdeens, hug her warmly, already thinking of her has family since long before the Games. Only Gale seems sullen, and it's easy to figure out why.

I try to help Katniss and Peeta, telling the cameras she's too young to think about marriage, no matter how nice a boy he is.

I wonder if it will matter.

My daughter looks younger, made that way by whatever the Capitol did to her. When she whispers to me that Haymitch refused to allow cosmetic surgery on her, I decide to thank him later with bottles of liquor.

Only the thin metal cane Peeta holds, and what it helps him balance on, will be real, physical reminders of the cost of the Games. People will forget the rest of what they went through, once he doesn't need the cane.

It's easiest to forget.

I know they'll never forget. Not as hard as they'll try.

I'll never forget, but I'll help them to try.

It's the least I can do, since I got off easy and only had to watch the horrors they went through.

**THE END**

* * *

Thank you so very much for reading through this story I decided to write on a whim. To those of you who so kindly left sweet, thoughtful reviews – you really did make the story worth writing. To those of you who read silently and didn't tell me your thoughts – I hope you liked what you saw and, if you've got this far, you probably did.


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